Articles on Google Analytics

Articles on Google Analytics setup, configuration, tracking, and reporting. Advanced setup configurations and advanced topics related web analytics.

Google Analytics Dashboard for Digital Agencies: SEO, PPC, SMM Dashboards

Google Analytics Dashboard

We’re happy to announce yet another addition to our Google Analytics Toolkit: Google Analytics Dashboard. This new tool is aimed at digital agencies and let’s you view all your client’s most important metrics at a glance, all in one place. It basically eliminates the need to navigate to each client’s Google Analytics account and property to […] Read more…

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What is (direct) / (none) source in Google Analytics? Understanding direct traffic.

Direct Traffic

When I do a seminar or a training (I am Google Regional Trainer in AdWords & Analytics) direct traffic is often one of the tougher things for the audience to understand. My audience is usually comprised of digital marketers, SEOs, AdWords specialists, and SMB owners so IT/web development background is relatively rare. That’s why when asked […] Read more…

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Google Analytics Easy View Filters (New Tool!)

Easy View Filters - Select Views

Today we announce a new addition to our Google Analytics Toolkit: the Easy View Filters tool. Inspired and requested by some of our existing users, this new tool will help you when: Onboarding a new client. Usually you’d need to apply commonly used and best practice filters to several views in his account. Since in Google […] Read more…

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Google Analytics Referral Spam Explained in 5 minutes – Infographic

The infographic below is our 5 minute guide to Google Analytics referrer spam. In it we cover what’s the effect of spam on your stats & reports, why does it happen, how exactly does it happen and what are 4 main approaches to dealing with it. The infographic contains descriptions of the two ways referral […] Read more…

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Auto Spam Filters – GA Referrer Spam: SOLVED

Stop GA Spam

I am very happy to announce today the launch of a new tool in Analytics-Toolkit.com called Auto Spam Filters. What is does is it takes care of pretty much all Google Analytics referrer spam & ghost traffic issues you might be having. All on it’s own in a fully-automated fashion and using a spam database […] Read more…

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How to Fix Ghost Traffic / Spam Traffic in Google Analytics

Stop Referrer Spam

Since my last posts on how to eliminate Ghost Referrer Spam in Google Analytics & Google Analytics data integrity attacks two things have happened: 1. The number of people complaining about spam referrers / spam events / spam pageviews in webmaster forums and Google Groups have increased exponentially 2. The Google Analytics team noted on their Google Plus […] Read more…

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Payment Gateway Referral Exclusions in Google Analytics

Referral Exclusion List

One of the most frequently visited reports in Analytics is the Source / Medium report. This is a primary reason why it’s targeted by referrer spammers, as we discussed in a recent article. There is, however, a much more trivial, yet common issue with the source / medium report that we see during audits and […] Read more…

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All Your Google Analytics Are Belong To Us

Google Analytics Data Integrity Attacks

In a previous post about referrer spam in Google Analytics I hinted that a much bigger issue might stem from this fairly harmless attack. The problem I present in this article extends to basically all Google Analytics data, for any website out there, no matter how big or small. The problem is how to preserve […] Read more…

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Guide to Removing Referrer Spam in Google Analytics

Stop Referrer Spam

This article deals with the problem of Google Analytics referrer spam (prominent referral spammers are semalt, darodar, buttons-for-website). I explain why and how it actually happens, why currently proposed solutions fail and I describe a working, albeit not perfect solution for the issue. Contents (click to jump to that part): The problem of Google Analytics referrer spam […] Read more…

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How to Restore Lost Google Analytics Data?

Well, it never happened to me or a client I’ve helped with Analytics, but it can certainly happen and you better know your options. What would you do if you accidently delete the wrong view, property or, even worse – account? What if a malicious person gains access or abuses access you’ve given to delete […] Read more…

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Tracking Site Speed with Google Analytics for UX and SEO

Site Speedometer

Given that site speed is a direct factor for AdWords landing pages, a major factor in Usability/UX/Conversion Rate optimization and a direct or undirect (I don’t think there is a consensus on that) factor in SEO, it’s no wonder many specialists nowadays pay close attention to page load times. Why Google Analycis for Site Speed […] Read more…

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Google Universal Analytics – Migration & Update Guide

Universal Analytics User ID Device Paths

What is Universal Analytics? Universal Analytics is the current version of the Google Analytics software and javascript library. It’s a huge update in GA’s backend and frontend that began in 2013 and as of time of writing (August 2014) it’s already out of beta and is the recommended version of Google Analytics for all users of […] Read more…

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